


Takes One to Know One

by beadedslipper



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-11
Updated: 2013-03-11
Packaged: 2017-12-05 00:12:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/716652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beadedslipper/pseuds/beadedslipper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the war ends, Rumpelstiltskin and Regina discuss who the bigger monster is.  Rumbelle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Takes One to Know One

At the beginning he had been calm and cool, as collected as always despite being strapped to a chair and unable to reach his magic thanks to a handy little stasis spell that had been hidden under the front rug. 

Despite never being one for stealth, apparently her Majesty had managed to learn a little subtlety in the last year. 

The she-devil herself stood tall before him, cool triumph in her eyes and killer stilettoes on her feet.  But despite her apparent assurance, he was confident that he still had the upper hand.  After all, he always did.  And he made sure to tell her so, with as many stinging verbal barbs as he could manage to work in…which was quite a few. 

He always did have a way with words.

But she just smiled as he issued his decorously-worded threats and admonishments, pulling out her sleek, top-of-the-line cell-phone.  No cheap trinkets for their Queen.  Her fingers typed away as she listened to him speak.  She flipped her phone closed, slipping it back in her pocket and turning her attention back to him…still smiling.

It had finally become eerie by the time he was cut off mid-sentence by the first scream.

And what a scream it was.  He would know that voice anywhere, but what was normally a melodious tone was now ravaged with pain.

He was struck silent a full five seconds before he began fighting his bonds.  He thrashed hard enough to rock the chair, his eyes wide and crazed.  He snapped and snarled, spittle flying from his lips to land at Regina’s perfectly shod feet as he slung wild, incoherent threats.  Promises of unimaginable pain, bloodshed the likes of which she couldn’t even imagine if she touched another hair on Belle’s head.  And still Regina smiled.

That was the first hour.

By the time the second hour rolled around, he was able to fight through the haze of terror and fury and bloodlust and regain some semblance of self-control.  He didn’t need the lover, he didn’t need the man.  He needed the dealmaker, the magician, the most feared monster in any land throughout time.  And so he fought off the part of him that flinched and cried in agony every time Belle’s perfect voice rang out in another scream.

He offered her deals, the deaths of her enemies, the world for her palace, his eternal servitude.  He offered her anything she asked for, the one deal only a truly desperate fool would make.  He had reached the point of foolish desperation.  She simply smiled wider, colder.

“When two people both want something the other has, a deal can always be struck.” She said, leaning close.  “You have _nothing_ I want.”

He snarled, snapping with his teeth, prepared to hurt her any way he could.

That was the second hour.

In the third hour he completely ignored Regina, his only focus on Belle.  He couldn’t see her, but her screams were becoming weaker.  Even one so brave as her could not hold out forever.  So he called to her, not caring that he was putting on a show for the Queen.

He told her how much he loved her, how he thought of her every day that they were parted and that he was so happy to have her back again.  He told her tales of their future and everything they would do together. 

He told her how they would find Bae and be a family and have adventures and see the world, just like she wanted.  They would go wherever she said and they would be together. 

He told her of the children they would have, another son and a beautiful baby girl that looked just like her, the tears starting to roll down his face in fat, ugly drops.  Baelfire would be the perfect big brother and Rumpelstiltskin would be so happy to be a father again.  He would love to see his Belle rounded with their children and she would only grow more beautiful to him.  He told her that they would grow old together and it would still be an adventure and he would love her every, every day.

He grew terrified when there was a brief silence and so he told her that he was coming for her, that he was almost free, that Regina was dead and that it would be over soon.  In three hundred years Rumpelstiltskin had never lied as a matter of principle but now he lied for all he was worth.

He screamed himself hoarse telling her anything he could think of to keep her with him.

That was the third hour.

By the fourth hour it had ended, but the end had been slow.  The screams had died to sobs.  The sobs died to whimpers.  Finally the whimpers died all together but still his ears strained for something, anything to tell his shell-shocked mind that what he knew to be true was false.

She was gone.

She wasn’t coming back.

Not this time.

And he was catatonic.  He stared, unseeing, into the distance. 

Eventually he understood that the Queen was still present and that he should probably say something.  He brought his head up with an effort, his eyes finding hers.  It gave him no relief to see that she wasn’t smug.  She simply watched him with a malicious frown on her face, not happy even now, even now that she had ripped every happiness from him.

He spoke, his voice a ravaged, disbelieving croak.

“She was innocent.” He said, dry-eyed.  “…You really are a monster…more than I could _ever_ be.”

She leaned close, her arms resting on the chair, their noses practically touching.

“No one is innocent.  And I am exactly as much a monster as you are.  After all, I am what you made me…Beast.”

And she was right. 

He had molded and shaped poor, trapped Miss Regina in the darkest part of his life, when he had despaired of ever finding Baelfire and when he had all but let the consciousness of the Dark One subsume him completely.

Not much had changed and in his arrogance he had failed to control his own creation.

He had failed in his promise to find Bae, his perfect, beautiful, loving son who only wanted to be with his father.

And he had promised to keep Belle safe.  He had failed.  Again.  As usual, everything was his fault.

At least he had lived up to his own expectations.

And despite everything, he had love.  Epic love.  _True Love_.  It was more than he had ever deserved.

And so he pictured the pure, beautiful, innocent woman who had found a way to love the most difficult of men.  And he smiled.

He smiled as Regina drew her hand back and plunged it into his chest.

He smiled as she wrapped her evil fingers around his battered, broken, patched heart and tugged it still beating from his chest.

He smiled because it wasn’t his heart she held.

She had taken his heart from him back in the third hour.

**…**

As he slumped forward in the chair, blood gushing in a grotesque torrent down his suit, he managed one last thought, still of the Beauty to his Beast.

_I love you.  I’m coming for you.  I’m on my way._

It must have just been a trick of the light, a cruel vision of hope from the witch, when he saw her Majesty fall, a sword through her chest. 

It must have been his dying mind playing tricks when he heard a distant voice, high-pitched and oddly familiar, calling…

“Papa!”


End file.
